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The Lost Ruins Of Pompeii And Herculaneum
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The volcanic
destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum was also a kind of fateful
natural mummification of these Roman cities for posterity to see.
Can you imagine the horror of being swept by monstrously flowing
lava and covered with white ash? Safe in the confines of our rooms,
you and I can’t imagine anything worse. Well, worse did happen
almost immediately to the people in the Roman twin cities of Pompeii
and Herculaneum in 79 AD.
August 24, 79 AD dawned like any other day for the citizens of
Pompeii. Children lazed, laughed and played and men and women went
about their daily business.
It was a hot and sunny
day, historians say. While the people enjoyed the sunshine, the
Vesuvius volcano, located barely a mile from the centre of the city
of Pompeii, was simmering in its core. On the outside, it looked
deceptively calm and beautiful. The slopes were covered with
vineyards and no one would have suspected what was going to happen.
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Deep inside the volcano, white-hot streams were heating up and
rising. The Vesuvius was pushing up the hot streams of lava. Soon
the force of the lava pushed it outside and there happened one of
the worst volcanic eruptions in the history of mankind. The lava
rushed down the slopes of the Vesuvius and swept the towns of
Pompeii and Herculaneum, catching everyone off guard.
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In fact, everything
was so sudden that there was no time to escape from its fury and
run to safety. Besides, no place was safe from the monstrous
downpour of the lava.
While some people fell dead on the spot, several others died at
exit points, trying to flee from the killer lava. As if this was
not enough, the torrent of the lava was followed by the flowing
of white ash from the volcano, which systematically covered the
lava like a topping of snow. Entire families, homes, streets,
buildings, animals, verily the entire city was buried underneath
the layers of hot ash and lava.
As luck would have
it, it rained torrentially soon after and the rain water reacted
with the white ash to form a layer of cement on top. And this
buried potential survivors underneath forever.
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Models of plaster of the victims of
Pompeii |
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For several hundreds
years, Pompeii and Herculaneum lay buried and forgotten. In
1763, an archaeologist, Giuseppe Fiorelli began excavating the
area and since then the excavation work has continued. This
exercise has been the longest one in history. |
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To the amazement of archaeologists, they
found that the two cities remained largely unaffected, with
well-laid streets and buildings still intact. They discovered
pagan temples, theatres, industrial buildings, market places and
offices and homes. The excavators even found beautiful
sculptures, paintings and baths.
The discovery of
Pompeii gave to many a historian an insight into the life during
the Roman Age. It was probably an ironic twist of fate that the
very ash that had made any escape or survival impossible, had
preserved the cities for historians and archaeologists. |
Pompeii as it is today |
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